European Commission

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis

Hydrogen Europe

Secretary General

Nils Aldag

Sunfire

CEO

Steinar Eikaas

Equinor

Vice- President

Jean-Eric Paquet

European Commission

Director General, DG RTD ( Research and Innovation)

Andrea Alberto Lovato

Tenova

CEO

Prof. Dr. Ing. Heinz Jörg Fuhrmann

Salzgitter AG

CEO

It was 1951, when the leaders of a small group of European states wanted to promote unity in the post-war continent. They started the closer cooperation by founding the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) with Jean Monnet as first President seated in Luxembourg. At that time, it was the issue of energy, symbolised by the prevailing energy carrier coal together with steel that welded Europe.

Today's challenge for the steel industry is to drastically reduce CO2 emissions. However, clean steel also presents an opportunity to increase the competitiveness of European steel production, provided that emission standards are imposed on industrial products. Although an emission-free steel industry will not be possible overnight, the fossil dimension can be eliminated almost completely using green and blue hydrogen instead of fossil coal for the reduction of iron ore to iron.

The ambition to liberate steel production in Europe from CO2 emissions is visionary, but not entirely utopian. Carbon Direct Avoidance is technically possible up to almost 90%. The decarbonised hydrogen will be green from RE and water electrolysis and blue via the CCS technology.